The Angels
by K.Henderson
Summary: "In the years that will come Castiel will understand. He will not know how it feels to look down upon humanity as it is now, he will come to care and to love them for more than mere creation. But that is a story for a later time." In which we meet the Guardians and their charges that had a role at the end of the world that never was, thanks to the Winchesters'. A lot more x-overs


_**Sybelle**_

(Daytona Beach Florida)

1994

**~.~**

* * *

Castiel, angel of the Lord, watched as two children toddled after one another on the shores of Daytona Beach. A little girl over eight years old laughed loudly as her four-year old younger brother tripped over his overgrown feet and fell with a great cry. He didn't actually cry, he wasn't hurt, and yet his eyes flashed bright blue in annoyance at his older sister.

Turning his gaze away from the bickering siblings Castiel's eyes caught sight of whom he was initially looking for. He walked towards the casually dressed angel, whose leather jacket and deep gray shirt and jeans seemed out of fashion for the balmy Florida heat. She'd toed off her boots and socks, her toes digging into the impossibly hot sand, feeling each and every grain and adoring the rough and terrible texture in a way only one of her kind can.

"Hello Castiel." She greeted with a voice too soft for a vessel such as hers, all voluptuous curves, thick golden brown curls and bright expressive brown eyes- the woman, if Castiel remembered correctly, had died just shy of her twenty-fifth birthday when Sybelle took her form.

Oh yes, he remembered all too clearly how it came to happen, the woman dying from heart ache over the loss of her newborn and his sibling coming to her and asking her for her body granting her sweet release in heaven.

"Sybelle." He took stood beside her and looked onward, passed the playing children towards the winding sea. It was beautiful, as the humans liked to say. Not the _most _beautiful but all the same enchanting with its glistening brilliant blue waters and the endless sky above. "You've been away from heaven."

"Yes." She said. "I...quite like this little planet and its tiny people. I lose time when I'm here. These beings are so imperfectly wonderful and fun to watch." Her eyes are on the little boy again, watching as his glittering glassy green eyes reflect unnaturally some of the sun's light. "My charge in particular is entertaining. Such a small vessel and yet such strong a character already. I imagine great things in his future or what could have been had, if not for destiny of course."

"Of course." Castiel agrees, his eyes linger on the dark haired older sister. He knows exactly what she means, at the implications.

"How many years of innocence will these children had left but perhaps only little more than a handful. It is a sadness, as the humans say."

"You sympathize." Castiel turned his gaze to his sister, her incredibly large form hindered by the vessel in which she squeezed in, and he wondered why anyone of his kind would ever choose to hinder their greatness inside such a small frame for long periods of time.

In the years that will come he will understand, he will not know how it feels to look down upon humanity as it is now, he will come to care and to love them for more than mere creation. But that is a story for a later time.

"It is hard not to sympathize. I've been charged with overseeing and caring for the boy's well-being. I know all that will and could ever happen to him even his own end. That is the hand destiny has laid for him and there is a sadness because there is nothing that can be done of it." She tilts her head, feline like or dog like, Castiel doesn't know what to call it.

Confusion or question, he doesn't know yet any human phrases that would fit the general gesture of it or the implications of what it means.

This does not make him simple-minded, on the contrary Castiel is beyond intelligent beyond all-knowing in terms of the human condition and of their world, but that does not mean he fully understands the smaller things. He will with time.

"Derek Hale." He looks at the boy in full; a cherub's face beneath the abundance of curls and eyes the color of light green glass glimmering happily. This child, he knows, will mean something to many people one day. Oh, his destiny isn't quite as important nor will it leave an impact on, lets say, _Castiel's _future charge, but all the same Derek has importance to the world.

And very much to Sybelle who seems to care more for the child than is required. It reminds Castiel of their other brother.

"Have you spoken to Adriell?"

"He has his hands full," Sybelle turns her attention away from her charge and gives Castiel a look that is nearly playful and entirely too human. "with the pressing issues of his own charge within the next year. It is a wonder if Adriell has any peace at all."

"Potter." Castiel drawls out slowly. "Our brother is too unlucky."

"You think so, Castiel? I would imagine you were the unlucky one." Sybelle jibes. "It will be many years until you know the pleasure of having a charge of your own or rather, until it is time to take the job that was intended. You can over look and watch him and yet you choose not to."

"Fourteen years will come quick. I have no reason to bother with Dean Winchester until then." Castiel, in his current vessel, a middle-aged lawyer from South Hampton, flexed his hands, long spindle like fingers curling finally against his smooth palm. "I cannot comprehend why you delight in being constant."

"Do you expect that we all just pop in once a month to check on them? That's laughable. I can't imagine not being with Derek every day until is existence is at an end. You soldiers understand nothing of what guardians do."

"There is plenty I understand. You intervene only to keep _him _alive for the event that is to come, his destiny. It isn't necessary to constantly watch over him when you will instinctively know when and if he needs you. What do you get out of it?"

"Diddly with a side of squat." She says.

"I...do not understand that reference." Castiel doesn't know what this diddly is or how squatting had anything to do with the conversation. It is obvious that Sybelle has been with humans too long now.

"You wouldn't." She waves and Castiel is suddenly aware that the children can see them.

"This isn't allowed." He says automatically to which she laughs at him.

"I know the rules Castiel. It doesn't mean I have to listen to them all the time."

He will eventually take her words to heart in the years to come, when he takes his time to watch Dean sleep, wondering how this small and insignificant creature could burrow its way into his every thought, taking the near forefront of importance there.

But he wont understand now. It's too early.

"Have they always seen you?"

"No." Sybelle lowers her waving hand and looks up at him, impossibly bright eyes all-knowing. "It began when my charge was lost some time ago with hunters trailing after him. I couldn't help but intervene, as well was my task anyway. Only, somehow instead of blindly leading him to safety as I should have done, I revealed myself. Don't look at me like that Castiel. He doesn't know what I am or what my mission is. He thinks me human and every time he sees me is when I wish for and allow it, and each time I disappear he forgets my face. He doesn't know that I was the woman who saved him, doesn't know that I was the woman in the library who reached for the higher books some months back. He cannot recognize my face."

"You know better than to take these liberties, Sybelle."

"Who are you to question what I do with my charge? I don't remember being your nestling. Quite the opposite, in fact."

She is his elder sibling, she knows more than he does, she understands the full spectrum of what it means to have a charge in a way that Castiel does not. For all of Castiel's bravado, for the maturity he assumes, he is still quite new in terms of existence when it comes to Sybelle or even Adriell.

"You're reckless." Is all that Castiel can say without sounding too foolish, however it comes out clipped the tone pertinant and even to his own ears he sounds like a child.

"In time you'll be just as reckless."

"Doubtful." He says. "You sound like Anael before the fall."

There is a silence between them, filled only with children's laughter and the sounds of the roaring tide, the whistling wind and the moving sands. Of course, it is implied that Sybelle and Anael are alike and as such it is unpardonable sin that they will eventually share.

"I wont fall." Sybelle's voice sounds far away. "I can't."

"You have a duty to the garrison."

"I have a duty to myself and that child." She says with a tone that Castiel doesn't recognize. Humanity has sullied his sister, that much is obvious. How can she love this halfling child so much that she allows her very character to change? "You should go."

"Have you tired so much from my visit?"

"I don't want to fight you Castiel. I don't want to be angry with you for your lack of understanding. It isn't your fault, I know that. Years ago, before my charge was born I was the same as you were. I stood in your place and in mine Anael before the fall."

"You wont fall." Castiel says with conviction. "You wont."

"I wont." She says. "I only mean that I have a better understanding now. That's all. And I have no patience to explain this all to you when the only way you can ever understand is by meeting and knowing your own charge."

"I will never understand." Castiel says and means it. Even if it all will eventually change and his purely business like manner with Dean Winchester will disintegrate and turn into something even more profound than that a guardian and a charge.

In the years to come it will become clear and Castiel will wish that Sybelle were around to talk to.

"Will you leave now, brother?"

He doesn't say goodbye and his departure is the sound of fluttering wings. It is 1994 on a hot beach in summer. There is a child and his sister, it is an innocent year that will follow another and another and it was all much too painful. What could she do for him?

In the years to come there will be war. The name Winchester would be thrown around in disgust and muted glory and the garrisons' numbers will pitifully dwindle all the while, Sybelle will keep to her post of watching Derek as his life falls apart around him. Then it will all change when Lucifer and Michael are thrown in the cage, trapped forever.

There will be no end of the world and any obligation to her charge is ended. Why? Because Derek Hale will never find himself in a town filled with those infected. He will have never have saved a small handful of children, he would have never become one of the few heros at the end of the world. What now?

**~.~**

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**Muse: Um...its about the angels obviously. This takes place way before they all fall, and basically deals with Guardian Angels, who in my tiny little created universe are lower on the chain of command, just above Cupids. Cas, being a Soldier Angel is ranked higher than Sybelle and the other guardians, only given his mission, being Dean, under special orders. BTW Derek and Laura Hale (from TW) are in Florida because summer vacation with the family. In case that wasn't obvioius (well I forgot to add that in, so my bad.) I hope you don't hate it terribly because I actually tried. No flames please, I don't do well under fire hatred and scorn.**


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